The present invention relates to a container treatment plant and a container treatment method for the treatment of containers capable of being filled with a product.
Container treatment plants usually have a plurality of modules, such as for example a stretch/blow mould module, a filling module, a labelling module and a packing module. In the stretch blow (mould) module, pre-forms are stretched and blow-moulded into containers, for example bottles. In the filling module the containers are filled and closed. In the labelling module the containers are labelled and in the packing module the containers are packed. Each of these plant modules thus performs a special treatment of the containers, such as stretch blow moulding, filling, labelling etc. In addition, inspection means and checking devices are usually present in or on the plant, which checks the containers for defects so that defective containers can be separated out.
To this end a container treatment plant comprises as a rule a plurality of different fixtures or treatment elements which are capable of being used in the various treatments of the containers. Treatment elements of this type are for example an inlet star and a heating mandrel of the stretch blow (mould) module, a filling valve of the filling module, a label gripper and a glue scraper of the labelling module etc., in order to name only at least a few of the numerous treatment elements.
When changing the type of the containers in a filling line of the container treatment plant it is frequently necessary for even at least a few of these fixtures or treatment elements to be exchanged.
DE 199 41 485 A1 discloses a packing machine, in particular for producing packages containing products. The packing machine has various format-dependent components which are provided with codes readable by a reading sensor. Wrong or absent format-dependent components are displayed to the user.
DE 693 04 419 T2 discloses a working head changer for a rotation system for the treatment of containers. In this case, in particular, changing a heating mandrel is described.
To this end, it has been necessary until now in the prior art, however, for almost all the treatment elements to be exchanged or adjusted by an operator by hand. This is highly demanding in terms of time and cost, however, since both considerable working force is required and prolonged re-fitting and thus stoppage times of the container treatment plants are necessary.
Consequently the object of the present invention is to make available a container treatment plant and a container treatment method for the treatment of containers capable of being filled with a product, by which the changing of the containers in the filling line of the container treatment plant is simplified and made time- and cost-effective.